


Shifting Storms

by TheIllusiveMantis



Category: Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: (sort of), Domestic, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 20:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3088244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheIllusiveMantis/pseuds/TheIllusiveMantis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Versus Maxie, Archie thinks the weather might actually be MORE predictable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shifting Storms

**Author's Note:**

> Just another little idea that came to mind. I really enjoy writing brief insights into how I feel their relationship could possibly be like... in other words very complicated and maybe not totally-healthy (but whatever works as long as both parties are ok with it, right?). It's possible this story might be a bit self-indulgent and OOC so forgive me if that's the case!
> 
> Takes place in the same sort of canon as my other story (No Fangs). If I write more for this timeline I'll definitely include more of the admins!

* * *

 

“What was _that_?” Maxie demanded, his voice unexpectedly harsh.

 

“What?” Archie felt like he'd been blindsided, suddenly on trial for a crime he couldn't remember committing. It must have been bad. On the Angry Maxie scale he was looking at about a 9. “What d'you _think_ I did?”

 

They were walking side-by-side in the dark, finally departing from the “casual end-of-the-year get-together” Shelly had organized for some friends of hers, many of them past members of Team Aqua. Of all Archie's former team-mates, she was the only one who seemed insistent upon Maxie accompanying him to these events. Perhaps it was for Courtney's sake. Or perhaps she was one of those people who believed that because they were no longer enemies that they should all be acting like _friends_.

 

Back to the present. Maxie turned away, seemingly even more offended now because Archie didn't even have the decency to know what it was he'd done wrong. A long painful silence concluded with him saying "never mind" in a stiff voice. Apparently Maxie really wanted to make him suffer.

 

A thought was occurring to Archie, but... _no_. He threw it out nearly at once, but it crept back in, making him wonder all the more as he considered it.

 

“You're not upset 'cos of Shelly's friend Adella, are you?” he ventured at last, trying to get a glimpse of Maxie's face to gauge his response.

 

He didn't have to. Maxie turned back to him, glaring.

 

“Your behavior with her was _beyond_ inappropriate.”

 

It was the worst thing he could have done at that time, and Archie knew it full well, but still, he laughed, _boisterously_ , in Maxie's face. Apparently there was still room for him to do _one_ more stupid thing before the year was over. Maxie flushed immediately, now a full, boiling 15. Humiliation was turning his ears and nose a bright red, visible even in the light of the streetlamps, and he increased his walking speed to a full march, leaving Archie behind him surprisingly quickly.

 

“Hey, Max, hey,” Archie jogged after him after calming down a bit, easily matching his pace even as Maxie futilely tried to preserve a dignified fast-walk, “Sorry. Weird to see you actin' jealous, though. You hardly said a word to me all night, and-”

 

“I wasn't jealous,” Maxie retorted, his gaze venomous. “You embarrassed me.”

 

Archie shrugged, not sure what to say now. “She's a really jaw-dropping girl,” he said, as if that explained everything. “Everyone knew it didn't mean anything. You shoulda heard the lines Dewey used on her, and he's a married man and everything.”

 

But Maxie was done listening to his explanations, now staring resolutely at the street in front of them, still walking fast so that Archie had to hustle at an awkward pace to keep up with him, not quite a walk or a run. It made for a very uncomfortable trip home.

 

The Mightyenas howled at them as they approached the front door. (If they didn't live in such a spread-out area, they might have had angry neighbors phoning to complain every night.) The two Pokemon were pacing around in the house expectantly when Archie unlocked the front door and the two of them clambered inside. Maxie immediately threw off his coat and disappeared into the bathroom to change while Archie sat down on the couch for a breather and pretended like Maxie's unpredictable behavior didn't bother him in the slightest.

 

He ended up watching some mindless program on the TV starring a clueless girl and her Marshtomp. He laughed harder than necessary a few times as Maxie flitted back and forth from the bathroom to the kitchen before finally disappearing into the bedroom. It was Archie's plan to wait out this uncomfortableness until Maxie had fallen asleep, and then count on the morning light reverting everything back to normal – a veritable _Watchog Day._

 

When he entered the bedroom (after killing a bit more time watching some purely space-filling reality show where old people tried to tell the difference between kinds of PokeBlocks, to the amusement of the young hosts), he knew instantly that Maxie was awake. He was turned away from the door, so that he was facing a wall, but Archie knew. He hesitated a moment before climbing into his side of the bed, making sure not to cross any sort of territorial boundary and risk some new outburst.

 

Maxie didn't look up to acknowledge him in any way. That's when Archie noticed his Mightyena. It had crawled into bed to settle against Maxie's front, and Maxie was stroking its fur gently.

 

Maxie's Pokemon had been impeccably trained. Barring special circumstances they never climbed up on sofas, beds, or any kind of other “human furniture” (although Archie personally didn't see the need for the distinction). But then there was this scene in front of him.

 

Gathering his courage (so to speak), Archie reached out his own arm, until it brushed Maxie's shoulder. His partner flinched at the touch, and Archie could feel that he was tense. Even if Maxie wasn't always overfond of physical affection (it seemed to change with the wind these days), Archie was reliant on it to help communicate his intentions. He brought his other arm forward and started to work the knots in his shoulders with his thumbs.

 

“You wanna relax a little?” he asked. Maxie remained silent. “You're not gonna be able to sleep like this. Lemme just-”

 

Maxie angled a shoulderblade back at him, something like a shove. In response Archie scooted closer, sweeping in to press messy kisses to the exposed areas of Maxie's neck, only for Maxie to shift enough to give him a proper push away.

 

“ _Stop_ ,” Maxie demanded, settling down to watch the wall again (his movement sending Mightyena hopping down to the floor and padding out of the room). There was a strange quality in his voice that only served to confirm Archie's suspicions.

 

When Maxie got depressed like this, there was no good way of easing it. He entered that strange territory of self-loathing and refused to entertain help in any way. For someone who relied heavily on their own inflated self-image, this sort of mood was cataclysmic. He became a swirling vortex of negativity into which no sort of encouragement could take root.

 

Archie groaned inwardly, swinging his legs so that he was sitting off his side of the bed, leaning heavily over his knees and trying to think. He couldn't sleep with Maxie right there, laying there all night hating himself and everyone else for something _he_ had done. It was beyond frustrating, sometimes, not knowing how his own innocent actions would set off some kind of horrible chain reaction like this; it wasn't fair that he had to feel guilt for something he hadn't meant to do. He might as well have been doing a randomized chemistry experiment every time the both of them were in the same room. He was risking some kind of explosion each time... or at least some noxious gas.

 

“Why haven't you left yet?” Maxie spoke, cutting into the silence.

 

Archie scratched the back of his head, now mentally preparing for a night spent on the couch. A real bitter end to his night, but won't do him any good here to throw a fit here. “If y'want me to go then I'll go,” he said at last, seeing nothing for it.

 

“No,” Maxie said quickly, still not budging an inch, “ _Why_... haven't you.”

 

The statement, fading to near silence at the end, was increasingly strange until Archie was able to put the pieces together: Maxie's standoffishness, sudden depression, the weird undertone in the question he was asking. “You know I'm not gonna leave you, right?” Archie asked, trying to keep any hint of the frustration he felt out of his voice. “Woulda thought the fact that we're here now is proof enough of that. After all the both of us have done, I mean.”

 

A long pause before Maxie spoke again. “It's stupid to want to be treated terribly,” he said. “Or perhaps you're very used to it.”

 

“You saying you treat me terribly?” Archie almost preferred it when all of Maxie's vitriol was directed at _him_ rather than himself. At least then he didn't feel such pressure to argue with him. “You gotta let me be the judge of that.”

 

“You were right,” Maxie huffs, sounding bitter. “No normal person would cause a _fuss_ over such a... meaningless display.”

 

“The party, right?” Archie chanced touching Maxie again, this time leaning over just enough to sweep strands of his slightly-mussed red hair behind his ears with his fingers. Maxie didn't protest. After all, Archie had saved the big guns for an occasion like this one. “Really, I understand totally why someone'd be jealous,” he acknowledged, “I didn't think you'd be the type to make anything of it.”

 

“I wasn't jealous. You embarrassed me. I told you,” Maxie insisted in a bit of a hiss, making Archie pause momentarily in his movements. “But my own feelings were what was... irrational.”

 

“ _No one_ at that party doubted for a minute that I was happily goin' home with you afterwards,” Archie asserted, causing Maxie to turn even redder with embarrassment, so that he matched that lava he was so fond of. “I'm not tryin' to make a fool out of you, Max.”

 

“My own foolish behavior needs no assistance,” Maxie murmured in a sigh. “I... apologize.”

 

“That's all ya need to say.”

 

Archie had braved the storm and come out safely on the other side. This was a sweet victory. He laid down with Maxie, not expecting another shove aimed in his direction.

 

“ _Shower_ ,” Maxie demanded, sounding like he was scolding a child. In spite of the sweetness of the situation Archie almost felt a bit petulant at the suggestion.

 

“Yeah, yeah!” he grumped in his own exaggerated way. He could almost hear the beginning of Maxie's lecture. _For a man who loves water so much, you sure need to be reminded an awful lot to_ stand under it _once in awhile!_

 

When Archie returned, hair still wet (even after roughing it up with a towel a few times), Maxie was repositioned in his usual nighttime posture, sitting up in bed braced against a pillow with some tedious-looking book resting against his knees. He looked every bit like the boring old man Archie teased him that he was becoming.

 

Maxie looked up at him, raising an eyebrow expectantly as if to say _what are you doing simply standing there?_ and Archie happily flopped down in bed, this time taking up way more space than was necessary.

 


End file.
